Fun With Locke

Sorry to go a touch off-topic, but I can't resist. Yesterday, Curbed.com managing editor Lockhart Steele was on the Brian Lehrer show, taking with less speed than he often does. He mentioned how sites "like Gawker" helped send his site get the traffic it needed to gain traction – not mentioning that he had been managing editor of Gawker until just before the summer. Toward the end of the interview, Brian responds to Locke's assertion that blogs often traffic in unsubstantiated rumor or gossip: "You did work at Gawker." "That's true, I did come from Gawker," Locke replies.

He did make a good point about blogging that's often missed by "the media" in the same discussion: Each and every individual post may not be accurate, but "If we get something wrong, we have the ability to tell you we got it wrong pretty damn quickly." So, over time, blogs are self-correcting and can be just as if not more accurate (at least if you catch the most recent post on a topic – and there's a big rub) than the MSM gives credit.

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